


Overgrown

by supreme_star



Series: One-Shots [13]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24375223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supreme_star/pseuds/supreme_star
Summary: A work I wrote earlier for last year's Fictober! (This work's prompt: Overgrown)
Series: One-Shots [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1750072
Kudos: 1





	Overgrown

**Author's Note:**

> A work I wrote earlier for last year's Fictober! (This work's prompt: Overgrown)

In a far off land, there is a forest where unimaginable plants and animals live. There have been stories that there was once a witch that surveyed the land, and once saved it from certain doom.

Now, however, there's been no trace of humanity living there for at least a few centuries, just a few papers written about it. No one could get near the forest, almost as if the land was protecting itself from unwanted guests.

Now, one would think that this story would start with someone marching right to the forest and being let in, maybe with a few stops along the way, but they would win nonetheless.

Normally, that would be the correct assumption and it would be applauded for one to think that so quickly, but this isn't one of those times where something absolutely needs saving, after all, the forest is doing alright for itself.

Centuries of no human contact has done wonders for the living things inside the forest. With no unnatural predators or prey in the mix, the life inside has a paradise-like existence. Although the circle of life needs certain things to fall at certain times, life is otherwise blissful.

The unique animals found in the forest have adapted to the quick changes the forest had to go through to ensure nothing gets in, such as gaining the ability to stretch and shorten themselves in case they set off a natural trap.

Some animals, like the adapted form of the more common hummingbird, they still rely on their need to eternally flap their wings at high speeds, in fact, even more so now that they need to dodge quickly.

Other animals, like the adapted form of the strong and wily coyote, have grown a near-impenetrable coat. This serves them as much-needed protection against the forests flora, and it helped them become one of the alpha predators of the land.

This raises the question, why would the fauna of this forest need such protection? If it's such a paradise with humanity not around, why all the adaptations for protection against danger?

Well, the flora in this particular forest takes special precautions, to ensure that no one outside will ever enter. They have themselves adapted into more, offensive measures for that very reason.

For example, the common, calm sunflowers, which are used as a way to see where the sun is because the sunflower will always face it, have undergone a dramatic change, all so no one can enter their home.

Instead of harmlessly following the sun, the sunflower has gained the ability to absorb minute amounts of sunlight on a day-to-day basis. This increases slowly but surely, and when something the forest sees as a threat comes by, the sunflower attacks with full force.

This attack has two phases, the warning phase, and the destruction phase. The warning phase strikes the threat with a small blast of sunlight, which startles the threat at best, blinds them at worst.

The destruction phase of the sunflower uses the heat rays it accumulated from absorbing the sun's energy into a makeshift heat ray, changing the opponent full force, with 9 times out of ten completely burning the threat out of existence.

Another plant that has adapted to more dangerous responses is one that was already pretty monstrous to begin with, the Venus flytrap.

Once able to lure bugs with a sweet scent, and then snap its mouth-like tendrils to consume it, the Venus flytrap now has a weapon for all intruders, no matter how big or small.

The overgrown-adapted Venus flytrap now has the ability to emit an illusionary fog, confusing the threat, until they go near the plant and meet their untimely fate against it.

Some say that the mysteries of the forest does not end there, that there's a being inside the land that cultivated these plants and animals to protect it from threats of the outside. Some have even gone as far as to say that there have been reports of a threat almost destroying the forest once, but those events are impossible to confirm.

No one knows what goes on that forest, nor will they ever will, but one thing's for sure. There's no other place like the aptly named 'Overgrown Forest Of Life'.


End file.
